Push for equal pay moves beyond Texas

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Houston), a senior member of the Women’s Congressional Caucus, was present Tuesday when President Obama issued an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from retaliating against workers for disclosing their compensation and signed a memorandum requiring contractors to provide pay information to the government.

Obama’s order came on Equal Pay Day, the day women’s earnings, on average, in the United States reach the earnings of men from the year before. This year, it took 98 days for women’s salaries to catch up the amount men earned in 2013.

Tuesday also marked the day before a vote is set to take place in the Senate on the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill sponsored by Senate Democrats that would require the Department of Labor to train employers to eliminate pay inequality and be more transparent about how much female employees are paid in comparison to men.

“On this Equal Pay Day, I call upon Senate Republicans to join together with Senate Democrats and make the Paycheck Fairness Act a reality,” Lee said.“We should remember also that equal pay is not simply a women’s issue – it is a family issue.”

Lee’s comments echoed themes from Obama’s speech, which called unequal pay a bipartisan issue that affects all Americans, not just women.

“I don’t care whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican,” Obama said. “If you’re a voter — if you’ve got a daughter, you got a sister, you got a mom — I know you got a mom — this is something you should care about.”

A recent state-by-state analysis by the National Partnership for Women and Families found that women in the United States earn an average of 77 cents to every dollar men make. The study, which is based on data from the U.S. Census, found even larger gaps in pay for African-American and Latina women.

“For African American women and Latina women, the wage gap is even higher,” Lee said. “African American women on average earn only 64 cents, while Latina women earn 54 cents to every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic men. It is time now to update antiquated pay equality laws and to eliminate the wage gap entirely between men and women.”

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-The Woodlands) agreed that “Americans should expect equal pay for equal work,” but added, “Let’s not ignore the real problem: Millions of women, and men for that matter, are hurting today because they can’t find a good paying job in this disappointing Obama economy and their families are missing more than $1,000 a month from their paychecks because the White House has focused on Wall Street while leaving middle class America behind.”

But Obama blamed inaction on Capitol Hill, not any outside economic factors, for why employers are still not held accountable for workplace discrimination against women.

Equal pay quickly became a hot button issue in Texas last month, when GOP gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott skirted the question of whether he, like current governor Rick Perry, would veto an equal pay bill if it came across his desk.

Last year, Texas state representative Wendy Davis, Abbott’s Democratic opponent, sponsored the fair pay bill that Perry later vetoed, and Davis’ campaign has gained momentum by focusing on the issue of equal pay.

Abbott, who currently serves as the state’s attorney general, has faced criticism for pay disparity between men and women in his own office.

The Texas Democratic Party pointed to equal pay as a major platform issue again on Tuesday, calling women “an essential part of our economy, our families, and our communities.”

“We need to leave behind Republicans who vetoed a fair pay law and used their toxic rhetoric to make women feel inferior,” said a spokeswoman. “Texas women deserve leaders who know our gender should not determine our worth.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky criticized the bill that will reach the Senate floor on Wednesday, saying Democrats’ focus on pay equity is just a distraction from more important economic issues.

“Instead of focusing on jobs, [Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid] launched into another confusing attack on the left’s latest bizarre obsession,” McConnell said on the Senate floor on Tuesday. “Just think about that. The percentage of Americans in the workforce is at an almost four-decade low, and Democrats chose to ignore serious job-creation ideas so they could blow a few kisses to their powerful pals on the left.”

But Obama urged Republicans to see the issue of equal pay as more than just a Democratic talking point.

“Pay discrimination is not a myth, it’s math,” the President said. “If Republicans want to prove me wrong, and show they really do care about women getting paid the same as men, they can show me [by passing this legislation].”